Right before my flight touched down in San Diego the veteran pilot came on the intercom and said, “Sorry about all that turbulence; in 20+ years of flying that was the roughest flight I have ever made.” The first two hours were the worst and the seat belt sign was illuminated for the entire flight. It was not an easy situation for someone drinking lots of water while headed for prostate surgery. 🙂
None-the-less we landed safely and early. I picked up my rental car at the new rental car center–what a disaster–and headed up to Patrick and Robin Sparkman’s home just north of San Diego. Mutual friend Byran Holliday arrived soon after I did and we quickly headed out into the rain. More on that tomorrow.
This image was created at Nickerson Beach last summer with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 1/3 stops off the light yellow sky: 1/1600 sec. at f/4 in Manual mode. AWB converted in DPP 4 at K8000.
Center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when photographing moving subject). The selected AF point was squarely on the bird’s back just behind the head; notice that the shallow d-o-f at f/4 is a non-issue due to the distance to the bird. Click on the image to see a larger version. Note: the optimized image above is a slight crop from below and our right.
Black Skimmer landing at dawn
You’ve Heard This Often…
You’ve heard this often: Join an IPT and learn to think like a pro. For folks seriously looking to become better bird and nature photographers, that is true dozens of times each and every day on an Instructional Photo-Tour. Here is what I am thinking. Here is what I am doing. And this is why I am doing it.
Having spent my last two Thursday mornings at Gatorland, I was–as always–amazed at the number of folks with good gear who have absolutely no clue as to what they are doing, no clue as to how to create a good image. I see folks routinely hand holding their intermediate telephoto lenses incorrectly. Walking by great situations. Working well off sun angle; that includes photographing backlit or sidelit gators into the bright sun at 9:30am (with no blasting highlights). Photographing subjects in mixed light, i.e, subjects that are partially lit by the sun and partially shaded. And the list goes on and on.
And the same is true in spades at Nickerson.
The Situation
The sun was just up and muted by a thin cloud on the eastern horizon. The wind was from the west; wind against sun is bad, bad, bad. But a bad wind for front lit flight photography is a good wind for silhouettes. I notice some skimmer landing in the dunes. “Everybody, lower your tripods and sit behind the colony ropes. Work in Manual mode and add about a stop of light to the meter reading off the sky just above the horizon. ISO 400 is plenty. Get AF on the incoming birds and make an image or two just as you see the beach grasses in the bottom of the frame… Sitting is mandatory to get the sky background and the silhouette. If you stand, you will have a beach grass background.”
Analyze. Envision. Plan. Execute. Get in the habit of using this formula/philosophy with every interesting situation that you encounter.
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmer head portrait, American Oystercatcher dining on surf clam flesh, Common Tern at sunset, Common Tern adult swallowing flatfish, Black Skimmer in flight, newborn Common Tern chick, American Oystercatcher with chick, fresh juvenile Common Tern (with fill flash), and Common Terns copulating.
Meet and greet at 3pm on the afternoon of Monday, July 18. Limit 10/Openings: 8.
The primary subject species of this IPT will be the nesting Common Terns. The trip is timed so that we will get to photograph tiny chicks as well as fledglings. There will be lots of flight photography including adults flying with baitfish. Creating great images of the chicks being fed is a huge challenge. In addition to the terns we will get to photograph lots of Black Skimmers courting, setting up their nesting territories, and in flight (both singles and large pre-dawn flocks blasting off). Midair battles are guaranteed on sunny afternoons. And with luck, we might even see a few tiny chicks toward the end of the trip. We will also get to photograph the life cycle of American Oystercatcher. This will likely include nests with eggs and tiny chicks, young being fed, and possibly a few fledglings.
Nesting Piping Plover is also possibly. There will be lots of gulls to photograph; most years I am able to find a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls of varying ages in addition to the Herring, Ring-billed, and Great Black-backed Gulls. You will learn to identify and age the various gull species. There will likely be some Willets feeding along the surf and with luck we might get to photograph a handsome juvenile or two. In addition to the locally breeding shorebirds, we will likely get to see some southbound migrant arctic-and sub-arctic breeding shorebird species such as Sanderling, Semipalmated Plover, and maybe even Red Knot.
From upper left clockwise to center: Black Skimmers with tiny chick, Common Tern landing with baitfish for young, fledged Common Tern chick in dunes, American Oystercatchers/display flight, adult Common Tern with pipefish for chick, Common Tern fledgling in soft light, American Oystercatcher on nest with eggs, American Oystercatcher 3-egg clutch, battling Black Skimmers.
The IPT Logistics
The tour will begin with a meet and greet on the afternoon of Monday, July 18, 2016. That will be followed by our first shooting session at the beach. From Tuesday through and including all of Friday we will have two photography sessions daily. Our morning sessions will start very early so that we are on the beach well before sunrise. We usually photograph for about four hours. Then we will enjoy a group brunch. We will always have a midday break that will include a nap for me. That followed by our daily afternoon classroom sessions that will include image review, workflow and Photoshop, and a review/critique of five of your trip images. Folks are always invited to bring their laptops to brunch for image sharing. I always have mine with me but heck, I am a big show-off. Afternoon in-the-field sessions generally run from 5pm through sunset.
Breakfasts are grab what you can. Four brunches are included. Dinners (if at all) will be on your own as we will often get back to the hotel at about 9pm. There is a fridge in every room and a supermarket within walking distance of the hotel so nobody should starve. You will learn a ton during the nine shooting sessions, the four in-classroom sessions, and even at lunch. Early morning and late afternoon parking is free. If we want to head back to the beach early we will need to arrange tight carpools and share the $30/vehicle parking fee. Non-photographer spouses, friends, or companions are welcome for $100/day, $450 for the whole IPT.
Save a space by calling Jim or Jen at the office at 863-692-0906 and arranging to leave your deposit of $599–credit cards are accepted for deposits only. Your balance will be due on April 18, 2016. I hope that you can join me for what will be an exciting and educational IPT.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. We sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. I just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and visiting the BAA Online store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
I hit the sack early and was up at 4am to finish packing. I began working on this blog post in the car on the way to MCO. Jim is driving and getting the rest of the day off as his reward. As Jen is at a LaLeche League conference in Atlanta there will be nobody in the office until Monday. Have a nice weekend 🙂 My flight to San Diego is at 11:05am. My pre-surgical appointment with Dr. Kellogg Parsons at UCSD Medical Center is on Tuesday. And I am hoping to undergo green light laser prostate surgery next Friday…
Price Reduced $2500
Japan In Winter IPT. February 9-24, 2017: $11,499 (was $13,999)/double occupancy.
Price Reduced $2,500 on 3-8-16!
Please e-mail for couple and IPT repeat customer discount information.
As I really, really want to make it back to Japan in winter one more time, I decided to lower the price of the world’s best Japan in Winter trip by $2,500. Yes my trip has three great leaders including the best bird photography instructor on the planet. That’s the guy who knows where to be when and why. And yes, it is now a bit more expensive than most. And yes, we stay at a fine hotel in Tokyo. And yes, we stay in a marvelous traditional hotel for our three nights at the Snow Monkey Park. And yes, we are perfectly located on Hokkaido, minutes from the premier Red-crowned Crane sanctuary and an easy drive to most of the other wondrous avian attractions. And yes, we enjoy home cooked breakfasts and dinners prepared by Shinobu, the wife of our local Japanese guide. She is an incredible chef. After three visits her meals are now traditional Japanese fine-tuned for the American palate. And yes, my tour is longer than the others, giving us many days with the cranes. I saw one trip with only two days of crane photography; what a bummer. End each day with a traditional onsen (hot springs mineral bath) to complete your immersion in Japanese culture.
Life is short. I hope that you can join me. Scroll down for details.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks 129 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only.
Everybody’s Doing It…
Everybody’s buying and selling used gear on the BAA Used Gear Page. Sales recently have been through the roof. The sale of three of the twelve items that I posted to the Used Gear Page this morning are pending after only four hours.
Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They recently folded. And eBay fees are now in the 13% range. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily. Even the prices on the new 600 II and the 200-400 with Internal Extender have been plummeting. You can see all current listings by clicking here or by clicking on the Used Photo Gear tab now on the the left side of the second yellow-orange menu bar at the top of each blog post.
Land Office Business!
Here is a list of early March sales:
Jim Keener sold a Canon EOS 7D Mark II in excellent condition for $999 in early March, 2016.
KW McCulloch sold a Canon EF 1.4X II Extender and an EF 2X II Extender each for $175. He also sold a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM lens in excellent plus condition for $1499.00, a Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens, my old “toy lens,” in excellent plus condition for $699.00, and a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Lens in excellent plus for $499.00. All in early March 2016.
BPN Out-of-the Box Moderator Cheryl Slechta sold a used Canon EOS 5D Mark III dSLR in near-mint condition for $1529, a Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS lens in near-mint condition $679, and a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens in near-mint condition for the $529–all in early March 2016.
Nigel Boon sold his Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM lens in like-new condition only $1599.00 in early March 2016.
Thomas Kokta sold his used Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS lens with Internal Extender in excellent plus condition for the insanely record-low BAA price of $8,050 in early March.
IPT veteran Dean Newman sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS lens, the “old five,” in excellent condition for $3,775 in early March.
South Georgia BAA group veteran Aravind Krishnaswamy sold his Canon 300mm f/2.8 IS II lens in like-new condition for $4,749 in early March.
Bill Moore sold his Canon 600mm f4L IS II lens in near-mint condition for $9,499 in early March before it was even listed.
Asta Tobiassen sold her Canon 100-400mm IS L lens in very good condition for $599 in early March.
This image was created on the recently concluded 2015 Japan in Winter IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 200mm) and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop as framed: 1/400 sec. at f/8. AWB.
Three AF points to the left and two up from the center AF Point/AI Servo Surround/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The selected AF point was on the bridge of the adult’s nose. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Snow Monkey young grooming adult
Bliss
This was about the third image that I made on the first day in recently concluded Japan-in-Winter IPT. The most beautiful part of the Monkey Park experience (except for the monkeys themselves) is that you can do everything hand held with either the 100-400 II or the 70-200 f/2.8L IS II and a 1.4X III TC. That makes the one mile walk up the hill that much more enjoyable.
This is a DPP 4 screen capture for today’s featured image
DPP 4 Screen Capture
The red in the background is the Highlight warning. Note that the illuminated red square on the bridge of the monkey’s nose shows that the selected AF point was active at the moment of exposure.
Easy Question
Why did I move the Shadow slider to +5? (Hint: take a look at the animated GIF below…)
Hard Question
Why did I move the Highlight slider to +3?
Before and After Animated GIF
What were the changes on the baby Snow Monkey?
Consider joining me in Japan in February, 2017, for the world’s best Japan in Winter workshop. Click on the card to enjoy the spectacular larger version.
Japan In Winter IPT. February 9-24, 2017: $11,499 (was $13,999)/double occupancy.
Price Reduced $2,500 on 3-8-16!
All lodging including the Tokyo hotel on 9 FEB, all breakfasts & dinners, ground transport and transfers including bus to the monkey park hotel, and all entrance fees and in-country flights are included. Not included: international flights, all lunches–most are on the run, and alcoholic beverages.
Please e-mail for couple and IPT repeat customer discount information.
This trip is one day longer than the great 2014 trip to allow for more flexibility, more time with the cranes, and most importantly, more time for landscape photography. Hokkaido is gorgeous. You will enjoy tons of pre-trip planning and gear advice, in-the-field instruction and guidance, at-the-lodge Photoshop and image review sessions in addition to short introductory slide programs for each of the amazing locations. Skilled photographer Paul McKenzie handles the logistics and we enjoy the services of Japan’s best wildlife photography guide whom I affectionately call “Hokkaido Bear.” His network of local contacts and his knowledge of the weather, the area, and the birds is unparalleled and enables him to have us in the best location every day.
Arrive Tokyo: 9 FEB 2017 the latest. 8 FEB is safer and gives you a day to get acclimated to the time change. Your hotel room for the night of the 9th is covered.
Bus Travel to Monkey Park Hotel: 10 FEB: A 1/2 DAY of monkey photography is likely depending on our travel time… This traditional hotel is first class all the way. Our stay includes three ten course Japanese dinners; these sumptuous meals will astound you and delight your taste buds. There are many traditional hot springs mineral baths (onsens) on site in this 150 year old hotel.
Full Day snow monkeys: FEB 11.
Full Day snow monkeys: FEB 12.
13 FEB: Full travel day to Hokkaido/arrive at our lodge in the late afternoon. The lodge is wonderful. All the rooms at the lodge have beds. Bring your warm pajamas. A local onsen (hot springs bath and tubs) is available for $5 each day before dinner–when you are cold, it is the best thing since sliced bread. The home-cooked Japanese styles meals at the lodge are to die for. What’s the best news? Only a small stand of woods separates us from the very best crane sanctuary. During one big snowstorm we were the only photo group to be able to get to Tsurui Ito; we had the whole place to ourselves in perfect conditions for crane photography!
FEB 14-23: Red-crowned Crane, raptors in flight, Whooper Swans, and scenic photography. Ural Owl possible. An overnight trip to Rausu for Steller’s Sea Eagle and White-tailed Eagle photography on the tourists boats is 100% dependent on the weather, road, and sea ice conditions. Only our trip offers complete flexibility in this area. It has saved us on more than once occasion. The cost of 2 eagle-boat trips is included. If the group would like to do more than two boat trips and we all agree, there will be an additional charge for the extra trip or trips. No matter the sea ice conditions, we will do two eagle boat trips (as long as we can make the drive to Rausu; it snows a lot up there). We have never been shut out.In 2016 there was no sea ice but our guide arranged for two amazingly productive boat trips.
Lodging notes: bring your long johns for sleeping in the lodge. At the Snow Monkey Park, and in Rausu, the hotel the rooms are Japanese-style. You sleep on comfortable mats on the floor. Wi-fi is available every day of the trip.
FEB 24. Fly back to Tokyo for transfer to your airport if you are flying home that night, or, to your hotel if you are overnighting. If you need to overnight, the cost of that room is on you.
Life is short. Hop on the merry-go-round.
To Sign Up
To save your spot, please send your $5,000 non-refundable deposit check made out to “Birds as Art” to Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. I do hope that you can join me for this trip of a lifetime. Do e-mail with any questions or give me a buzz at 863-692-0906.
Purchasing travel insurance within 2 weeks of our cashing your deposit check is strongly recommended. On two fairly recent Galapagos cruises a total of 5 folks were forced to cancel less than one week prior to the trip. My family and I use Travel Insurance Services and strongly recommend that you do the same.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. We sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. I just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and visiting the BAA Online store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
I woke early on Thursday and headed up to Gatorland for a short shooting session. I started and finished this blog post that same evening. Jim is driving me to the airport at 7:15am on Friday and then heading directly home. As Jen is also taking the day off, please note that there will be nobody in the office until this coming Monday.
The Streak
Today’s blog post marks 128 days in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only.
This image was created last Thursday at Gatorland with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 400mm) and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 400. Evaluative metering -2/3 stop: 1/2500 sec. at f/7.1 in Manual mode. AWB
Two AF points to the right and two up from the center AF point/AI Servo Expand/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when hand holding). The selected AF point was on the bottom of the lores just forward of the bird’s eye. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Breeding plumage Great Egret with ruby red eye
Sometimes You Need to Speak Up…
This rather handsome bird was sitting on a boardwalk railing. I had gotten right on sun angle and was in good position. A guy with a camera was walking briskly toward me. “Whoa! Slow down a bit please. The birds are pretty tame but you need to take some care when you approach them especially when someone else is already working a subject.” He took it well and I coached him into position to get a few good images of the same bird.
This morning I had a similar situation but I never saw the guy coming until it was too late. I had been the first one into the joint and was enjoying the solitude. Another Great Egret on another railing. At the last second I saw that a photographer was going to walk between me and the bird while my lens was pointed at the bird. It was a pretty nice bird too. As the boardwalk is only about five feet wide at most, the bird of course left the scene.
As the bird flew I said more than loud enough for him to hear, “Please tell me you did not just do that.” He did not respond.
About 15 minutes later he walked back toward me. I said, “I know that this is not my private shooting location but for future reference, you might have said ‘Excuse me.’ I would have moved slightly closer to the bird very slowly and let you walk by behind me. It is likely that the bird would have stayed. For what it’s worth, that is the proper etiquette in situations like that.” “I’m sorry,” he said. “I did not think that the bird would fly.”
Sometimes you really do need to speak up. Note: I have changed quite a bit over the past decade or so. You can only imagine what I might have said to him in 2004…
Neat Image screen capture
Click on the image to be more amazed by the larger version.
Neat Image screen capture
In the NeatImage screen capture above you can see how amazingly this plug-in controls the noise in the dark background. Remember that the background will be rendered dark (and noisy) because I correctly exposed for the bright white bird. (See the section on Exposure Theory in the original The Art of Bird Photography.) After converting the RAW file for today’s featured image in DPP 4 with Arash Hazeghi’s Luminance and Chrominance values from our DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide, I brought the image into Photoshop and played around some more with NeatImage.
I am learning this plug-in as I work on Arash’s latest e-book effort, The Post Processing Guide. The main thrust of the book deals with Arash’s high level noise reduction techniques using NeatImage. Arash recommends and uses only the NeatImage plug-in for advanced noise reduction to maintain maximum fine detail in his images. Both artie and Arash recommend only the Proversion as the Homeversion does not work on 16-bit images. In this e-book we will teach you how to run heavy noise reduction on the background and light noise reduction on the subject… Folks who are good with Layer Masking may wish to get a copy of NeatImage and get a head start with this great program.
While Arash is a brilliant scientist and a brilliant photographer, writing clear and easy to understand how-to is not his forte; that is why we team up on these e-books. I will be working hard at re-crafting his section on noise reduction on my long flight tomorrow. We are hoping to be finished with the guide within about two weeks.
Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. We sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And we are always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. I just learned that my account was suspended during my absence; it should be up and running by Monday at the latest.
I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and visiting the BAA Online store as well.
Facebook
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack!
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right 🙂
